Home Fires

by Susan Cameron

  “Aye, it’s been a gift. I’m a lucky man.”

  That month in Toronto was a healing balm for the children. Their nightmares came less often, and Annie was thankful they were able to experience a carefree summer.

  Within two weeks of leaving, Jim wrote to say that he had bought the property on the town limits, and had received permission for a two-week leave to work on rebuilding the house. Unfortunately, all the experienced carpenters were busy on other rebuilding projects, but he managed to hire a couple of men to help him. They had cleaned up the concrete foundation of the house and built a floor over it to keep out the elements. He had the lumber to begin framing and would try to get the walls up and the roof on soon. His leave to complete the house would be in late September or early October.

  Poor Jim, Annie thought. He’s been so busy, and then he’ll soon be shipped out with the army. She hated to impose on her brother and sister-in-law for another month, but they insisted that they were happy to have them. For Annie’s part, she loved having the company of another woman, and she and Catherine were becoming close friends. They often took the streetcar together to an open market and bought whatever fruits or vegetables were in season.

  One day, when Alfie returned home from work, Annie and Catherine were busy in the kitchen, their hair wrapped in bright silk scarves. The air was thick with the sweet aroma of peach preserves.

  He laughed, “You two have enough preserves here for an army!”

  The kitchen was moist with steam, and every flat surface was covered with colourful jars. Catherine’s face was scarlet from the heat and Annie supposed her face must be too. She looked up at her brother and wiggled her sticky fingers, threatening to hug him. Alfie carefully kissed Catherine’s cheek, then backed out of the kitchen with his arms up in surrender. The women looked at each other and laughed.

  By mid-October, Annie was preparing for the return north. She often imagined their new home. She dreamed of a proper bathroom with plenty of hot water, and bedrooms upstairs for the boys. They would have electricity and maybe even a telephone. She knew that property near railway tracks was not valuable, but to her it was an insurance policy. She didn’t have to explain that to Jim; he understood.

  After she and the children returned to the North, Jim would be crossing the Atlantic to fight in the war. Her heart sank as she thought of the mortal danger he would soon be in. Will he come back to me alive and unbroken?

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  It was bittersweet parting when Annie and the children left Alfie and Catherine. Alfie had hired a car to take them all to Union Station, and they waited together until it was time for Annie and the boys to board the train.

  He hugged Annie, and then looked at Catherine.

  “We’ve decided that if we have a girl, we will name her Anna, after her auntie,” Catherine announced.

  Annie blushed and hugged her sister-in-law, thanking her over and over again for her hospitality. The boys were very quiet, and Annie knew that her three oldest probably feared returning home, thinking of the horrors they had witnessed up north. But they smiled when their uncle handed Bobby a paper bag of sweets to share with his brothers.

  They boarded, and waved at Alfie and Catherine as the train pulled out of the station.

  At North Bay, the halfway point of their trip, Annie splurged on a purchased lunch for the children; she was positive there would be few treats for them for a very long time. She laughed as she watched them eagerly open their lunches. Inside each box was a chicken sandwich, an apple, a jar of lemonade and a biscuit. Her boys were in heaven.

  The Jackpine Junction station had been rebuilt over the summer. The weather was noticeably cooler than in Toronto, but this time she was prepared. She pulled warm sweaters from a bag for the children and herself. Looking around, she thought how odd it was to expect to see the bright colours of autumn, and instead to see only blackened stumps all around.

  As Annie placed their last piece of luggage on the wooden platform, she saw Jim coming toward them. He looked thinner, and worry lines had deepened across his forehead, but his greeting was jovial.

  “Welcome home! I’ve borrowed a car to take us to our new property. Here, Bobby, Jack, help me load the luggage into the car.”

  Annie was relieved to see smiles on the older boys’ faces as they anticipated a car ride. The road to Bear Falls was rough, but the boys bounced along, giggling at every bump and pothole.

  When they pulled up to their new home, Annie was shocked. There was only bare framing and an unfinished roof. An army-issue tent was pitched beside the skeleton of a house.

  “I’m sorry Annie,” said Jim. “It was impossible to hire enough carpenters with so much construction going on in town. I’ve only been able to work on the house on my free evenings, with a little help from some friends. I’ll finish as much as I can on my leave. It won’t take long to put up the walls and roof and I’ve hired two men to help me.”

  Annie was sorely disappointed. The house was not even close to being finished. But she remained quiet, determined to hide her disappointment. Jim had tried his best, and he already had enough stress without her adding to it.

  Jim bowed gallantly and, with gentlemanly airs and a smile, he offered his arm to her.

  “Come, madam, and I’ll give you the grand tour.”

  They climbed the roughly built steps to the entrance, and Jim swept his arm around to show how large the kitchen would be. “I’ve ordered a large cook stove to place against this wall, and over here there will be a stairway leading up to three bedrooms. This room at the back of the kitchen will be your bathroom, with - just as I promised - the biggest hot water tank in the North.”

  He led Annie through a large doorway. “You’ll have a proper dining room here, and that room at the back will be our parlour.”

  “I can picture how lovely it will be, Jim. It’s so much larger than any other place we’ve lived. Imagine!”

  Bobby and Jack carried their luggage to the cellar of the house. Jim had built a trap door in the floor, and set up a ladder to reach the basement. When all their bags and boxes were stored, Annie went back outside and peeked inside the tent. Jim had laid several rough army blankets on the floor to fashion beds. She couldn’t help but compare this accommodation to what they had become accustomed to in her brother’s house. She wiped away a tear, and scolded herself for becoming so soft.

  Standing outside, she looked around their barren yard. Autumn had arrived in the North and the brisk evening breeze promised an early frost. She wrapped her arms around herself and took a deep breath of the cool fresh air.

  “I’d forgotten how pure and clean the air is here. The air in Toronto always smells of exhaust and too many people.”

  Jim raised an eyebrow doubtfully, and Annie grinned.

  “Don’t worry. I haven’t turned back into a soft city girl yet.” She paused. “I love how you’ve planned and laid out the house. You’ve thought of everything.”

  “Love, you can’t fool me. I know you’re disappointed that the house isn’t yet finished. I’m sorry. I promise we’ll only have to spend a couple of nights in the tent.”

  “We’ll be fine, Jim.” And she was really starting to believe that they would. “I’ll help you. I’ll have Georgie watch Hal and Henry and I’ll work beside you and Bobby and Jack.”

  “It’s getting dark. We may as well make an early night of it and get up early tomorrow morning. I’m going to teach Bobby and Jack some carpentry skills.”

  Inside the tent, Annie arranged a bed of blankets for her two youngest and they fell into an exhausted sleep. The three older boys soon fell asleep, too. That night the temperature dipped to freezing, but the family, sleeping so closely together, managed to stay warm.

  When Annie and the children woke up in the morning there was frost on the ground. A welcome scent of coffee filtered into the tent. She peeked through the flap. Jim was standing by a campfire with a metal rack over it. He had a coffee pot bubbling and a pot of
oatmeal porridge cooking. He was holding a wire fork over the fire, toasting bread and whistling a tune.

  “Good morning!” Jim called. “It’s time to rise and shine, boys. Come and get your breakfast.”

  Annie went back into the tent, and said “Bobby, take Hal out and make sure he eats. Jack and Georgie, you go get your breakfast while I nurse Henry. After you eat, Georgie, I’ll need you to take care of Hal and Henry. Listen boys, you will do whatever your father asks. He needs your help.” She was afraid they might grumble to Jim after having had such an easy time living with their uncle and aunt.

  The children reluctantly climbed out of the tent into the cold morning air. Annie could hear Jim talking to Bobby and Jack about his work plans for the day. She was determined to help Jim too, but would have to take several breaks from the physical labour as five-month-old Henry still needed to nurse.

  Within a couple of hours, Jim had Bobby and Jack working as hard as grown men. Annie was proud that her two eldest boys kept up to Jim’s demands without complaint. She joined them when she could, hammering and hoisting beside Jim with such ease that he said, “I didn’t know you were such a carpenter. You’ve been hiding special talents from me!”

  Annie laughed and replied, “I didn’t know either. I guess watching Pappa and my brothers build things stayed with me.”

  The two hired men soon arrived and the building progressed more rapidly in the days that followed. By the end of the first week, they had all of the walls up, the roof on and windows and doors installed. At least the house was now enclosed. After that, they were able to sleep inside the house, but still often woke up with their blankets stiffened with frost.

  Finally, in the second week of Jim’s leave, one of the wood stoves arrived by horse and wagon. The driver apologized for the delay.

  “Sorry folks, these stoves have been on backorder for a while. Everyone in the North needs to replace stoves that were lost in the fire. Your larger cook stove will be in stock in a month or so I’ll deliver it free for you then.” The men quickly installed the stove, chimney and venting and soon had it warming the house. Jim had also ordered insulation made of oakum – twisted hemp fibre – which would be delivered in a few days, too.

  In the middle of the week, they experienced the winter’s first snowfall. The stove had arrived not a moment too soon.

  As Jim’s second week came to an end, it became apparent that he would not be able to complete their house. He worked frantically into the third week, fully knowing that he was AWOL, but determined to finish.

  On the Wednesday of the third week, a soldier drove up from the base to tell Jim that if he did not report immediately, the army would send the military police. Jim asked the man to give him a minute with his wife.

  He took Annie in his arms and in a hoarse voice said, “I knew that I was gambling for time. I’m so sorry. I have no choice now. We have enough money to pay to finish the house but I hate to leave you and the boys with winter coming on.”

  Annie wiped away her tears. “We’ll be fine. Just take care of yourself.” She knew from other army wives that most letters were censored by regiment officers, and that Jim wouldn’t be able to tell her where he was. He had reassured her, though, that the men were issued special green envelopes once a week whose contents would not be censored by the officers, although they might be opened at general headquarters. He could write to her more personally then. “Write often,” she pleaded. “I’ve lived through a hell here and survived, so don’t sugar-coat anything for me. I need to know what’s happening. I need to feel close to you.”

  “I’ll write as soon as I get to the camp,” said Jim. “If worse comes to worst, I’m sure you can go to Alfie’s again.”

  She put her arms around him and buried her face in his shirt, inhaling his familiar scent. When she raised her head, Jim kissed her, and then pulled back to look deeply into her eyes. He told her he loved her.

  He spent just a few minutes packing a bag. Outside again, he called the boys and gave each of them a hug. After kissing Annie one last time, he reluctantly got into the soldier’s car and left for Camp Borden.

  Bobby and Jack sobbed quietly beside her, and the younger boys clung to her skirt, bawling. Annie knew that Jim was despondent, and so was she. In fact she felt utterly abandoned. But she had to be strong. She was the sole parent responsible for five children. “Come inside, boys.” Eyes welling with tears, she turned and walked slowly back to their unfinished shell of a house. The inevitable, unforgiving northern winter was quickly approaching, and they had so little protection. She shook her head and sadly wondered what was to become of them.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  After two miserable days worrying about their situation, Annie decided to swallow her pride and bring her situation to the attention of the local carpenters’ union. The next Sunday afternoon, she and all five children arrived at the home of the union president. She had rehearsed in her head what she was going to say. As soon as the man answered her knock she blurted out her speech, telling him about losing their previous home and possessions in the fire, and Jim shipping out, and the house unfinished, and being alone with five children.

  “I realize that the carpenters are very busy with rebuilding,” she concluded breathlessly, “but I desperately need your men to help me finish my house before winter.”

  The man was silent for a minute, and Annie lifted her chin and stiffened her spine. She was determined not to cry if he should refuse her. Just as he was about to open his mouth, he was nudged aside by tall, thin woman.

  “William, you should have invited Mrs. Kidd and her children inside. Come in to warm up and have some refreshments. Of course the local carpenters will help you, won’t they, William? It’s a sad world if we can’t help the families of our enlisted men.”

  As Annie searched the man’s face for signs that he might agree, his wife stepped forward and took Henry from her arms and hustled the rest of Annie’s children into her kitchen, promising biscuits and milk. Finding herself alone with the man, she prepared to repeat her request, but he spoke first.

  “Of course I will help you. I’ll set up a work crew each day for a few hours after our regular hours during the week and rotate some men to work on Sundays.” Annie barely dared to breathe. “I know your husband quite well. Jim’s a good man and I’m happy to help his family.”

  He was true to his word. The next day, at a little after five o’clock, three carpenters arrived with the union foreman and walked around the house to assess what needed to be done. They had a short conversation outside, and soon Annie heard hammering. Each day after that, different men arrived shortly after their day shift and worked steadily for a couple of hours. On Sunday a larger work crew appeared, and by the second Sunday the exterior of the building was completed. Annie once again had her own home. It was unfurnished and hardly offered much protection from the winter freeze, but she owned it.

  In Annie’s first letter from Jim, he wrote that the commanding officer had torn a strip off him and said the infraction should go on his permanent record, which would mean that he would never get a promotion. But fortunately the same officer, being a man of the North too, seemed to understand Jim’s reasons for not returning on time, and somehow Jim was back in the barracks as if he had never gone AWOL.

  He ended his letter saying that his regiment would be going overseas within days.

  In that first month after Jim left for Camp Borden, Annie and the children were uncomfortable in the house. The temperature often dipped below zero and the snow accumulated as winter settled in. The small wood-stove could not keep them warm, and Annie and the children often had to crack the frost on their blankets in the mornings when they woke up. The older boys were quite happy to go to school, which was being held in the town hall until a new school could be rebuilt. At school they could enjoy the warmth from the classroom wood stove and eat a hot lunch as well.

  But Hal and baby Henry were cranky with earaches and runny noses. Annie des
perately missed the food supply of her root cellar. She often had to rely on canned goods to feed the children. She heard that the local dairy cows were sick, so she switched to canned milk for the family’s needs as well. She still had two wooden cases of the preserves she and Catherine had made over the summer. Each Sunday she opened a jar to treat the family. But still, she knew her boys were suffering from poor nutrition. They were often sick.

  By mid-December the interior walls were insulated and the finished kitchen was now cozy with a large new stove. The carpenters had built her many generously sized cupboards for storage, along with a wooden table and benches.

  One late afternoon as she sat in the kitchen, enjoying the warmth of the kitchen fire, Annie realized that, somewhere along the way, the heavy burden of worry and despair that she’d been carrying for months had been lifted. The baby was asleep in her arms, contentedly sucking his thumb, and Hal was playing quietly on the rug near the stove. Thankfully both children had recovered from their earaches and colds.

  She glanced through the doorway to the right, towards the empty dining room and parlour. She knew that it would be a long time before she could afford to purchase anything for those rooms, but it didn’t matter. She had swallowed her dignity and asked for help, and now she once again owned her home.

  But still she pined for Jim. She prayed that he would stay safe and come back to her.

  Chapter Forty

  Annie fretted over how she would make her meagre funds stretch to the end of December. Christmas would come, and there was no way she could afford gifts or even a special meal for the children. Then she had an idea. She knew that the boys were still mourning the loss of their dog, so impulsively decided that she would find a puppy for them. That would be their Christmas gift. It couldn’t cost much to feed, she reasoned. They could give him table scraps. She would find a small dog, one that wouldn’t need to eat much.